1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC pickup preferable for use for an IC testing apparatus for testing semiconductor integrated circuit devices and other various electronic components (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cICsxe2x80x9d representatively) and an IC carrier and IC testing apparatus using the same, more particularly relates to a compact IC pickup superior in operating response and an IC carrier and IC testing apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IC testing apparatus called a xe2x80x9chandlerxe2x80x9d conveys a large number of ICs held on a tray to the inside of the handler. There, the ICs are made to electrically contact a test head, then an IC tester unit (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9ctesterxe2x80x9d) is made to perform the test. When the test is ended, the ICs are conveyed from the test head and reloaded on trays in accordance with the results of the tests so as to sort them into categories of good ICs and defective ones.
Some conventional handlers are of a type provided with, in addition to trays for holding the ICs to be tested or the tested ICs (hereinafter referred to the xe2x80x9ccustomer traysxe2x80x9d), trays conveyed circulated inside the handler (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9ctest traysxe2x80x9d). In this type of handler, the ICs are reloaded between the customer trays and the test trays before and after the test.
The handler is provided with IC pickups for transferring ICs between the trays and pushing the ICs against the test head. A conventional IC pickup is comprised by a suction pad for picking up an IC by suction, a vacuum generator for impacting a suction force to the pickup pad, a control valve for controlling the ON/OFF state of the suction force by the vacuum generator, an actuator for making the pickup pad move up and down (for example, an air cylinder), and a control valve for driving the actuator.
In such a conventional IC pickup, however, the actuator having the suction pad attached to its front end was for example provided at the base of the X-Y conveyor of the handler, the control valve for driving the actuator was provided at a location other than at the base, and the vacuum generator and control valve were provided at still other locations, so a hose connecting the actuator and control valve and a hose connecting the suction pad and vacuum generator were necessary. Therefore, the distance between the drive and the control valve inevitably became longer and there was a problem in the response to a control signal.
Further, depending on the mounting positions of these parts, the arrangement of the hoses for connecting them also became difficult. Since the suction pad and actuator are operated by the X-Y conveyor, a length enabling their range of operation to be covered was necessary.
The present invention was made in consideration with these problems in the prior art and has as its object the provision of an IC pickup with components assembled compactly and superior in operating response and an IC carrier and IC tester using the same.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an IC pickup with components assembled compactly and superior in operating response and an IC carrier and IC testing apparatus using the same.
(1) According to the present invention, there is provided an IC pickup comprising at least a pad for picking up and holding an electronic component by suction, an actuator for making said pad operate, and a suction control valve for applying and releasing a suction force to and from said pad, wherein said pad, said actuator and said suction control valve are assembled into an integral unit.
With the IC pickup of the present invention, since the pad, actuator, and suction control valve are assembled into an integral unit, by attaching this unit to the base of the XY-conveyor, the IC pickup components can made compact and the hose connecting the pad and the suction control valve can be shortened, so the operating response can be improved.
The xe2x80x9cassembly into an integral unitxe2x80x9d spoken of in the present invention means not only building the pad, actuator, and suction control valve into a single part, but also joining these parts using screws or other connecting means. Therefore, when the stroke of motion of the pad differs and the suction force is the same, the pad and actuator may be changed and the same parts used for rest of the IC pickup.
Further, the suction control valve according to the present invention is a control valve for both imparting a suction force to the pad and releasing it and may be configured by a feed valve alone and also may be configured by a feed valve and break valve in combination. When the suction control valve is configured by a feed valve alone, the feed valve is operated when applying the suction force, while the air pressure serving as the source of the suction force is released to the atmosphere when releasing the suction force. As opposed to this, when desiring to improve the speed of pickup and release of an IC or when the IC is relatively light in weight, is possible to add a break valve to forcibly release the suction force.
(2) In the above invention, while not limited to this, a sensor for detecting the suction force of the pad may be further assembled into the integral unit. By assemblying the sensor for detecting the suction force into the integral unit, since the location of detection of the suction force is close to the pad, the accuracy of detection by the sensor becomes higher.
(3) In the above invention, as the suction force generator for imparting a suction force to the pad, it is also possible to use one outside of the pickup, but when providing a suction force generator able to be used for individual pickups or several pickups, it is preferable that a suction force generator be further assembled into the integral unit.
By doing this, the IC pickup components are made more compact and also the hoses and flow paths connecting the suction force generator and pad and the suction force generator and suction control valve can be made shorter and therefore the operating response improved.
(4) In the present invention, the actuator for making the pad move may be either of the electrically driven, electromagnetically driven or fluid pressure type. When using a fluid pressure cylinder, a cylinder control valve for controlling the drive action of the fluid pressure cylinder is preferably further assembled into the integral unit.
When using a fluid pressure cylinder as an actuator, a cylinder control valve for controlling the drive action of the fluid pressure cylinder becomes necessary, but by assembling this into the integral unit, not only can IC pickup components be made compact, but also the hoses and flow paths connecting the fluid pressure cylinder and cylinder control valve can be shortened and the operating response of the fluid pressure cylinder can be further improved.
(5) While not particularly limited to this, when using a fluid pressure cylinder as the actuator, the fluid pressure cylinder is preferably made one of a differential pressure control system such as with the IC pickup set forth in claim 5. By adopting this differential pressure control system, the cylinder control valve becomes more compact and the IC pickup can be made smaller in size.
(6) In the above invention, while not particularly limited to this, the IC pickup set forth in claim 8 is characterized in that at least several electrical signal wires among a plurality of electrical signal wires are connected to a single location.
Since the electrical signal wires for the actuator, suction control valve, sensor, etc. are comprised of a plurality of cables, by connecting these together at a single location, it is possible to share the power wires and as a result reduce the number of wires (number of core wires). In this case, in addition to connecting all of the plurality of electrical signal wires at just a single location, it is also possible to connect just some of the plurality of electrical signal wires together at a single location. If connecting all of the electrical signal wires centrally at a single location, however, it is possible to provide a more compact IC pickup.
(7) In the above invention, while not particularly limited to this, an IC pickup set forth in claim 9 is characterized in that the signal wires for the actuator, suction control valve, and sensor are made internal wiring.
By making the signal wires for the actuator, suction control valve, and sensor internal wiring, it is possible to make the IC pickup components more compact.
(8) In the above invention, while not particularly limited to this, an IC pickup set forth in claim 10 is characterized in that the fluid path with respect to the suction force generator is formed internally. And in the above invention, while not particularly limited to this, an IC pickup set forth in claim 11 is characterized in that the fluid path with respect to the fluid pressure cylinder is formed internally.
As the fluid paths of the suction force generator and fluid pressure cylinder, hoses, pipes, etc. may be used, but by forming the fluid paths inside when assembling the pickup components into an integral unit, the IC pickup components can be made more compact.
(9) The IC pickup of the present invention may also be used as an IC carrier combined with a drive for making the IC pickup move in at least one axial direction and may be used built into an IC testing apparatus conveying an IC to a test head, testing it there, and sorting the IC based on data of the test results.
In this case, the IC pickup of the present invention may be applied to various types of IC testing apparatus such as IC testing apparatus of the chamber type, IC testing apparatus of the heat plate type, IC testing apparatus of the type performing tests in a state with the ICs carried on a test tray, and IC testing apparatus of a type performing the tests while directly holding the ICs by the IC pickup and can be applied to all sorts of IC pickups in IC testing apparatus such as loader sections, unloader sections, or test head sections.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustrations only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.